The Usual Way of Shutting Him Up
by Dukes126plus
Summary: That big old blonde Pavlov’s dog was drooling all over the dirt beneath their feet. From Duke of Duke.


It had to happen eventually. Luke winks at Bo, and Bo winks right back. Sure, it _could _be all about outsmarting Boss. But it's not.

From _Duke of Duke_.

* * *

The only thing that stood between them and disaster was Daisy. Bo was just plain giddy with desire, spending all this time up here at the old Shawnee Injun Caves. Luke wasn't thrilled that this was where they wound up, but Bo was an idiot and Luke's usual way if shutting him up was off limits when they were crowded into a car with their own cousins (plus Cooter's).

The Shawnee Injun Caves were about the only place Bo wanted to be these days, at least when they could slip away for a couple of hours. It was one of those childhood hideouts that was long forgotten until a recent afternoon when they needed a quick escape off of the old Ridge Road. Rosco was like a hound on a scent that day (or had nothing more pressing to do) and clung to the road where he'd last seen the General, trapping the boys in the caves for hours with nothing better to do than explore: first the caves and then eventually each other.

That wasn't two weeks ago. But it got so that Luke didn't even have to ask Bo what he wanted to do when they got free from chores. He just slid himself into the General's passenger seat and let Bo drive them up to those old caves.

Which, by its own nature, led to Bo blurting out the Shawnee Injun Caves as the destination of choice when L.B. asked them where to go when they were all on the run from Rosco.

Spending the better part of a day in this familiar hideout was like grilling up a steak in front of Bo, but telling him he couldn't have even the smallest taste. That big old blonde Pavlov's dog was drooling all over the dirt beneath their feet. Luke was starting to think Bo might just grab his hand, right here in front of everyone, and lead him back to some of the crevices they had recently been christening. His best method of keeping Bo in check was to make him focus on the task at hand, helping a stranger that claimed to be family with a problem that could be easily rectified by selling that fancy piece of machinery the man was driving. Two plans at once – foiling Boss and keeping Bo's brain above his belt line – stalled and came to a stumbling halt when Jesse wandered off from the caves without telling anyone why, where or when he'd be back. Nothing to do but wait, and Bo had already done more of that than he was used to.

Daisy was their salvation without ever meaning to be, the way she wandered off with the man who called himself Gaylord. Even Bo's larger-than-life libido wasn't stronger than his duty to watch over Daisy. Bo settled on the trunk of the General, head just barely resting on Luke's shoulder, to watch. Comfortable little moment in the middle of tormented denial.

Short respite, because the next thing they knew, Jesse was back with information that hardly felt like news once it got out into the open air: this Gaylord cousin of theirs was nothing better than a petty thief. With a gun, it turned out, and rope, and the means to wield both simultaneously. Maybe Bo would be happy that he'd finally gotten Luke inside the caves, if it hadn't been for Daisy and Jesse in there too, the whole bunch of them tied with the best knots the scheming city-slicker could make.

Of course Luke made short work of getting free and obviously Bo was the one he'd help first. After that it was back to using the distraction technique, but it was made that much easier by the addition of "Gaylord" to the bad guys' side of the scale. And, in case all other methods of running Bo ragged failed, Luke threw a skunk into the mix.

By the time they got to the Capitol City Courthouse, even Luke was sure that he and Bo had better things to be doing. The excitement of the day had run its course, and now it was just a matter of making sure Boss accepted the loss of things he'd never had to begin with. No more action now, just words, and Bo was fidgeting at the edge of Luke's vision. A wink, he hoped, would make the point. (_Soon, Bo._)

Should have known better; the fool never was any good at subtlety. Bo actually stood there in front of their family, friends, enemies and blackguard non-cousin, and winked back. (_How about right now?_)

They two of them got one last break in the mad dash that followed when Daisy's beau-du-jour tried to make a quick getaway. A chase and some handcuffs later, all that was left was the excuses and the wild drive back to the caves.

_I left my knife back there. Might take awhile to find it. No, me and Bo don't need no help looking._

Bo help in the hunt for the missing knife was invaluable. Just about yanked Luke into the caves in his eagerness to look. Used his whole body to pin Luke against the wall, and began the search in his mouth.

"Ain't here," he announced. Luke barely had time to nod before Bo was searching along his windpipe and under his ears. "Here neither." Luke barely swallowed and Bo was at the snaps in his shirt, popping them all at one go.

"Aahhhghh," Luke commented somewhere around the time that Bo had gotten below his rib cage.

"Nope," Bo informed him. "Not there, neither."

Couldn't have been a minute later that Bo's hands were on Luke's belt and his mouth brushing around just to the north of it, when Bo spoke up again.

"Hey, Luke, look at this." And the fool rocked back, not touching Luke anywhere. "I found your knife, right here on your belt." Rotten little smile with twinkling eyes above it. "You want to go home now?"

Luke grabbed himself a fist full of yellow shirt and didn't stop pulling until those silly grinning lips were right there in front of him, where he could finally shut Bo up in the usual way.


End file.
